Prep Football: String of talented QBs keep Aquin flying in NUIC

But against East Dubuque, the Aquin junior quarterback needed to rally the team back from a six-point deficit on the road with roughly two-and-a-half minutes left in the game.

A younger Chang, even with his varsity experience as a sophomore starter in both basketball and baseball, may have folded.

But not this time.

“I feel like a sophomore Aiden Chang would have freaked out,” Chang said. “But my trust in my coaches and teammates has really helped in every sport I played in.

“We knew we had a lot of time on the clock. So we just stayed calm.”

Chang threw the tying touchdown in regulation, then the game-winner on the first play in overtime to elevate Aquin to a 3-1 record.

Winning on the quarterback’s arm is nothing new at Aquin. The Bulldogs have passed their way through the rankings of the NUIC Upstate for years, relying on a spread offense to remain one of the top teams in the conference; a conference that’s known a lot more for its running.

“The most important person of the offense we run is the quarterback,” Aquin coach Todd Kramer said. “You’ve got to have the receivers and line, but it all starts at quarterback.

“We’ve been pretty fortunate the last few years to have kids who have that natural instinct to play along with someone who’s very smart and has a good knowledge of the game and has a good arm.”

How it all got started
Aquin wasn’t always like this. The Bulldogs played a more traditional run offense like everyone else in the area and won state titles in 1981 and 1986. But the offense changed after the Bulldogs lost to Dakota in the first round of the 2004 playoffs.

“We kind of ran out of linemen and running backs,” Kramer said. “Back when Dr. Marty Janecke and I were assistants, we knew that our line was going to be average and we weren’t going to be able to move guys around and play power football.

“We had a good quarterback and receivers with good hands. So after that year, we researched the spread and came up with the offense that we have today.”

“They had (quarterback) Adam Jelinek coming back and really good athletes, so (offensive coach) Craig Jenkins set out to put in the spread,” said former Aquin quarterback Nolan Brannick, whose father Tim, was on the coaching staff. “They won state the following year, so obviously it worked.”

Jelinek set school passing records, many of which still stand as the Bulldogs won state in Class 1A in 2005. Nolan Brannick was a ball boy then. Six years later, Brannick would take over at quarterback and lead Aquin to its deepest postseason run since ‘05, reaching the state semifinals.

“I definitely learned a lot from Adam,” Brannick said. “I wanted to be him. Last year I was fortunate to pass most of his records. It’s really special playing quarterback at Aquin.”

Offense spreading around
Though the NUIC is still a run-dependant conference, more teams are using the spread.

“A lot more teams have been going to it,” Orangeville coach Jay Doyle said. “Milledgeville runs it now, along with Warren and River Ridge. Following our first game against Durand, our next four games were against the spread.”

“It’s just a sign of today’s times,” Kramer said. “Sometimes you have kids and linemen to run and others you don’t. We felt that after we ran out of our big guns, we could spread it out.”

River Ridge coach Bill Johnson was the coach of Eastland-Pearl City when the Wildcatz were one of the first teams in the conference to run the spread. In 2002, both Aquin and E-PC’s offense combined to score 152 points in a 78-74 Bulldogs win.

Student of the game
Former quarterbacks Ryan Zuravel and Brannick picked up cues from Jelinek. And Chang learned both on the sidelines and at receiver last year from Brannick.

“Nolan was a great teacher and taught me some of the little stuff,” Chang said. “Coach Stovall and Coach Kramer are two of the smartest coaches in the area. They match very well and know how to work with us. It’s been easier than most would think, even though I was kind of nervous coming into it.”

This season, Chang has thrown for 1,187 yards, with 16 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Three of those INTs came in his first game as a starting quarterback against A-FC.

“That first game was pretty rough for me,” Chang said. “I was trying to do too much and wasn’t making my reads. I’ve made my reads now pretty consistency.”

Chang and Brannick both struggled at first making better reads. But both are students of the game, using their football IQ to improve and excel on the field by the following week.

Brannick, who now attends North Central College, was impressed with how well the offense looked when Aquin played Stockton in Week 2 of this season. Chang threw for a season-high 435 yards with four touchdowns.

“He’s killing it,” Brannick said. “To be honest I was surprised with how many points he was putting up considering the turnover from last season. But he’s doing really well.

“Through my first four games as a senior, I threw for around 1,000 yards and 17 touchdowns. This year, he’s already at or near those marks as a junior, which is pretty amazing.”

For Kramer, Chang has seemingly always had a sports instinct along with a knowledge of whatever the three-sport athlete is playing.

“Some people just have that gift,” Kramer said. “I don’t know much about basketball, but I coached him in fifth and sixth grade basketball and he was very knowledgeable.

“It’s something that you don’t teach kids. They either understand it or they don’t, which I think has helped him pick up the system in football. He’s recognizing it because he has that sports-minded sense. He watches film and is always asking questions and picks things up pretty quick.
“He’s a student of the game.”